Whats going on at yellowstone?

Go away for a while and I return to see one of my favorite forums "Fragile Earth" quite active with Yellowstone Volcano activity. If I recall correctly the last time we had such activity and noticeable bulge was in 2006 which wasn't a year in which we saw extreme solar activity but it was an active year if my memory serves me correctly. Since then Yellowstone was fairly quiet, as was the solar activity in 2007 and 2008. Now at the dawn of 2009 we see increase volcanic activity at yellowstone and we are also told that solar activity will increase from now through 2012-2014. I personally believe in a correlation between the two and expect to see something happen in the Yellowstone area within the next five years.

sorry if I'm repeating the opinions of others, I'll be honest and say that I didn't read the last hundred or so pages.

Originally posted by LoneInDarkness
What in the hell just happened WSPfan???

I believe he just had a harmonic tremor.

Heres an interesting article. It seems the thought that YellowStone can erupt is starting to hit far and wide. Even the scientists are worried, according to the article, that this recent activity can indicate an eruption, albeit it may be very very unlikely.

Scientists Concerned About a YellowStone Eruption

reply to post by ghaleon12

I take your point about being picky on "magma" versus "lava". Sorry I wrote it that way. I'm pedantic sometimes and what I wrote might have come across as "I know more'n you!" and I didn't mean that. I apologise.

The Wikipedia reference. Thank you for the information. The report I've been referring to for some hours now also has a lot of information and would be good to read, especially as it's specifically about the situation in Yellowstone and what can happen there versus what is more likely or most likely. True, the whole thing could go up and I understand the basics of what has to happen for it to do so. The experts admit that such an event is possible, but they also say it's it's extremely unlikely and that a "smaller" eruption or explosion is far more likely. (But the odds are still low. They give the figures in the report.) Okay, "small" by Yellowstone standards is still pretty big by the standards of just about anywhere else, but as we're looking at that region then it's fair to think of "small" in that (Yellowstone) perspective.

What I'm really trying to do is just make sure that we don't head the "gloom and doom" direction when we really don't even know all that much about what's going on in Yellowstone. There's cause for concern, but how much concern -- we just don't know. All information from accessible sources can only be helpful and it's good that you gave that source from the Wiki.

I just try to keep in mind that a lot of people are very nervous now, especially if they live anywhere near Yellowstone. Not a good state of mind to be in. That's why I try to go for the lower end of what might happen. I'd prefer and I hope for the lowest: zilch! But if something does happen, the odds are that it will be at the lower end of the scale...I think in that respect we're pretty well on the same page.

Best regards and thank you for your reply.

Mike

Anyway I've been on here for about 12 hours...so goodnight, all. Have a quiet day. Please...

[edit on 1/1/09 by JustMike]

reply to post by maeveoc


whoa - that link doesn't show any outages!

good find

reply to post by ANNED


did you see the link that does show all the data? it looks like the machines were still on

we just couldn't see them.

Earthquake Swarm at Yellowstone Supervolcano: Update
January 01, 2009 03:21 PM ET | James Pethokoukis |

www.usnews.com...

Great read!

Originally posted by JustMike

Originally posted by SixNine
There has never been an eruption here so I cannot give you any kind of links showing what happened last time.

There have been numerous eruptions in Yellowstone (which is what I assume you mean by "here") over the last two million years or more, of several different kinds. They have been intensely studied and reported upon, and the report from the USGS that I referenced at least twice in the past few hours makes that quite clear.

[edit on 1/1/09 by JustMike]

The last eruption at yellowstone happened before mankind. IE: There has never been an eruption of this type of volcano studied by scientist . Science works on observation or evidence. We can tell its erupted in the past but any warning signs or anything of the like is pure speculation. Sorry for any kind of confusion, I just thought that would have been more obvious in its meaning. Perhaps I should be more detailed.

The quakes we have been seeing started at too shallow of a depth to be an indicator of a volcanic eruption. These quakes started and consistently been too shallow to indicate a volcanic eruption. The movement being seen is happening in the hydrodynamic system of yellowstone, not the volcanic system underneath. A volcanic eruption of yellowstone would likely start near the top of the magma chamber and work its way to the surface. In other words, you would see deeper quakes then what we have been seeing. These 100's of quakes have been around a mile or less, which is very far away from the magma chamber. The closes part of the magma chamber to the surface that I have heard of being detected is 5 miles with the average being around 7-8 miles deep.

An eruption of the hydrodynamic system is possible as there is a lot of movement in that system which is what these quakes are all pointing to. However to my knowledge there has never been any observed eruption of this system by modern science. So for all science knows, this could be simply a part of a cycle, the creation of a gyser, or an eruption. There is really no certainty of what the outcome will be. The good news is that this provides information to scientist about the hydrodynamic system and thus if it is just a cycle, they may be better prepared to predict a hydrodynamic eruption in the future.

this is the latest update I have found. It seems there were 5 quakes this morning in the area.
earthquake.usgs.gov...

I've saved some quake-maps from this link, to see the development. I wish I'd saved more maps, and I missed December 30 and 31.

reply to post by worldwatcher


Hello! I went into the correlations between seismic/volcanic activity in Yellowstone and solar activity, our currently faltering magnetic field, added a bit about the upcoming alignment in 2012 and solar maximum. Bad move on my part. Got put in my place. Must only speak of seismic charts. Glad to see a couple people following the patterns that aren't generated by seismic monitors.

hmm, everything seems to have gone eerily quiet as far as events. But what is bugging me is that there appears to be some increasing harmonic tremor activity southwest of the caldera from station 116A in Idaho. (But I cannot confirm those are indeed harmonic tremors. Could be high wind.)

Well, maybe we're out of the woods!

On the other hand, it seems the bigger events happen coming out of relative calm. Well we've got relative calm across all stations right now. Gulp. Keep those fingers crossed boys.

[edit on 1-1-2009 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Exactly what we were saying Monday night/Tuesday morning. Then round 2 started.

As they have said this event could last weeks. I am interested to see if we are in for a round 3 after a few hours of silence again.

Originally posted by Penster
reply to post by worldwatcher

 

Hello! I went into the correlations between seismic/volcanic activity in Yellowstone and solar activity, our currently faltering magnetic field, added a bit about the upcoming alignment in 2012 and solar maximum. Bad move on my part. Got put in my place. Must only speak of seismic charts. Glad to see a couple people following the patterns that aren't generated by seismic monitors.

In my opinion, everything you have contributed to the discussion is pertinent, it's not just about the seismic monitors.

We all are learning and watching.

And to stay on topic:
Here is a link for the water data near Yellowstone:
waterdata.usgs.gov...

reply to post by TrueAmerican

I'd definitely not call the currently seismic activity "calm"
Ok, there might be some wind
but the old faithful cam is no longer showing any snowfall or tree movement; only fog.
And especially as the same activity can be seen at the YML and LKWY graph, I'd definitely not say that the current events are finnished.
Taking past graphs into account,
never both graphs have shown such simultaneous activity; whilst one was showing rather heavy activity quite regularly as you can see on the past graphs, the other one wasn't.

[edit on 1-1-2009 by th0br0]

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


I so hear you.

Well right now in Gee I am monitoring 42 channels across 14 stations, covering the whole area in and around Yellowstone lake. It gives the advantage of being able to "triangulate" the quake events, in such a way that if something happens close to the lake, a quick glance at some of the others further away can give a rough idea if the event was small or large. That's how I knew about that last 2.7 when I saw the others further away had clearly picked it up. And all of this sometimes minutes before the UoU network reports on it.

[edit on 1-1-2009 by TrueAmerican]

Hi all, I've been following this thread with great interest from here in New Zealand where quakes are a daily occurrence (we have over around 15,000 quakes a year here in our tiny part of the world source: www.gns.cri.nz... )

From here it looks like the activity has subsided substantially, or is that the case because of some of the charts being "down"? To that end, where can I see a seis graph of "normal" activity at LKWY?

Have learned a great deal from this amazing thread, well done for keeping it on track and informative.

[edit on 1-1-2009 by MoorfNZ]

Not sure what the rest of you think, but this is the most volcanic activity I have ever seen worldwide on RSOE.

Take a look and tell me what your opinion is for those that keep an eye on all the Icons.

I am counting 20+ Volcanic Icons worldwide.

hisz.rsoe.hu...

[edit on 1-1-2009 by Realtruth]

reply to post by th0br0


I would have to agree in the past they have been either one or the other looking harmonic or being harmonic not both at the sametime.

Originally posted by Realtruth
Not sure what the rest of you think, but this is the most volcanic activity I have ever seen worldwide on RSOE.

Take a look and tell me what your opinion is for those that keep an eye on all the Icons.

I am counting 20+ Volcanic Icons worldwide.

hisz.rsoe.hu...〈=eng

[edit on 1-1-2009 by Realtruth]

This is actually pretty standard volcanic activity on this site. I've been a daily checker
of RSOE for the last 9 months of so. I was shocked to learn there were this many - this often. What strikes me as strange are those days when there are little to none and/or seeing them in uncommon areas - such as Yellowstone. : )...

[edit on 1-1-2009 by spinkyboo]